My first bit of tube gear was a AR SP10 that was gifted to me by one of my very kind and generous clients. I had no idea just how good it was, but when he offered it to me as "an old preamp that he had in his basement" I graciously accepted. It cam with lots of old tubes which were all "graded" on a hand written spread sheet no less. It sounded wonderful in my system and the phono section was amazing, albeit a little bit noisier than the SS unit that I was also using.
The other tubed amp that I have is a "refurbished" Fisher 100b that belonged to my late father. It was in the family for decades until it finally came back to me. I was a little skeptical about using it in my main system due to the relatively low output, but I decided to give it a try while I was between amps. The results were absolutely stunning to say the least. While not the last word in the area of bass and upper frequency extension, the music it made was just that, music. While I am not using it at the moment, it still sits atop my main rack as a reminder of dad's appreciation for music that I am blessed to have inherited.
The other tubed amp that I have is a "refurbished" Fisher 100b that belonged to my late father. It was in the family for decades until it finally came back to me. I was a little skeptical about using it in my main system due to the relatively low output, but I decided to give it a try while I was between amps. The results were absolutely stunning to say the least. While not the last word in the area of bass and upper frequency extension, the music it made was just that, music. While I am not using it at the moment, it still sits atop my main rack as a reminder of dad's appreciation for music that I am blessed to have inherited.